


Forgotten

by CaptainCheif



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Gen, Memory Alteration, Temporary Character Death
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-14
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:14:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 13,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21787339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainCheif/pseuds/CaptainCheif
Summary: In, Out, In, Out. Chat Noir forced himself to breath. They didn't know him. And now he was terrified. He didn't want to go back. Not to his old life. Now that he had tasted freedom, he refused to give it up. He would fix this. He would not remain forgotten.
Comments: 21
Kudos: 41





	1. Suspect to Murder

Chat Noir was running, fear making him move faster than usual, and using his staff to push himself farther than he ever had before. His pursuers were intently following him, Chat couldn’t risk looking behind him otherwise he would slow down and then he would be caught. Seeing a green flash out of the corner of his eye, Chat allowed himself to drop between two buildings. He felt the wind as the green shield passed over his head.

As soon as his feet hit the ground Chat was moving. He couldn’t afford to pause or stumble or he would be caught. He just needed to find a spot to hide, and then he could think about what was happening.

_ “Where should hide?!” _ , he looked down both sides of the street, looking for anything that could offer a place to hide.

“ _ There!” _ , his eyes zeroed in on a manhole covering, further down the street. It would be close, but if he made it he could jump into the sewers and lose his pursuers in the dark. Not his first pick in hiding places, but he was out of options and negotiation had been tossed out the window about 30 blocks ago.

Moving forward he jerked to the side, just barely dodging a yo-yo that would have entangled him. It instead hit the road, and he raced forward, now heading towards the covering. If he made it in, he would have much better chances of getting away.

“Stop right there!” he heard behind him.  _ “Stop? Yeah, right” _ , he thought, his thoughts almost hysterical. Reaching the manhole, he used his staff to help throw the cover off, and he tossed himself headfirst into the darkness.

And then jerked to a stop as someone grabbed his ankle.

“I got him!”, someone shouted above. Chat scowled,  _ “No, you don't actually” _ , and he used his staff to hit the black gloved hand that had grabbed him. The person yelped in pain and let go. Chat dropped the rest of the way, hitting the floor with a thump. He didn’t wait to hear what they were going to do, choosing to sprint down one of the tunnels.

_ “ They’ll need to make a quick plan, now that this chase is in the dark and in tunnels. They can’t just charge after me” _ he thought. Which would allow him to put some distance between them, and to find a spot to hide.

He raced down the tunnels, taking random turns, every step bringing him farther away from capture. After what felt like an eternity, he slowed to a stop, breathing heavily through his nose. He glanced around the room he was in.

He was standing in a tunnel, on the top of a small staircase, trenches where the water would flow were in front of him. At one end of the tunnel he could see a ladder leading to the surface. Chat stepped off the stairs, trying to force his legs to stop shaking.

In the distance he could hear snatches of conversation from his pursuers.  _ “—him here – down this tunnel! – go, our time – next time.” _

Well, it sounded like they were going to stop the search for now. Chat took a deep breath. That chase had been, well, terrifying. He hadn’t wanted to get caught, and he didn’t want to hurt anyone either. Looking down at his arm, he could see where one of them had managed to hurt him, a wound on his arm was bleeding slowly. He wasn’t sure when it had happened or who had done it, but it’s presence just showed that they either didn’t care about whether they hurt him, or they were intentionally out to hurt him. And they had been so  _ angry _ when it happened, and he had no clue why.

Glancing back down the tunnel he just came from; Chat made his way to the ladder.

_ “Home, I just need to make it home” _ , was all that was going through his head. Everything else was secondary. Once home, well, he could figure out more once he was home.

At the top of the ladder he carefully lifted the covering, peeking outside. The sun was starting to set, and it looked like no one was hanging around . Chat slipped out of the sewer and quickly made his way to the nearest alley. He paused once hidden in the dark again.

He didn’t want to take off his ring because that would make it difficult to sneak back into his house. But he also didn’t want to leave it on because then he would be spotted, he could’ve  _ already  _ been spotted, just coming out of the sewer.

Ok, the important thing here is that he needed to get home. He knew that the others wouldn’t be able to chase after him for some time. And he also knew that he couldn’t sneak into the house properly, as tired as he was. So, he would stay as Chat Noir, and just make a beeline for home.

“Ok”, he breathed out, “ok, so let’s do this.” Chat stood up fully, looking in the direction his home was in. He pulled himself onto the roof of the building he was standing next to and started running towards home.

* * *

He closed the window behind him and landed on the floor of his room. It didn’t look like anyone had really noticed him. Well, he hadn’t heard any shouting, and he hadn’t seen anyone chasing him.

“Claws in”, he says, the area around him covered in black before it seemingly got sucked into the ring on his finger.

“Kid!” Plagg appeared next to Adrien’s head moving around frantically, “What happened out there! You’re bleeding! And why were we being chased?!” Adrien just shook his head.

“I - I don’t know,” Adrien said, voice starting to shake, “I just- they just- I don’t know.” His whole body felt like it was shaking. The whole thing had shocked him. An akuma had appeared, and luckily it had been just after school finished. And he had gone as Chat Noir to the scene.

It had been a little odd, Ladybug hadn’t answered any of his attempts to contact her, and on his way, people had, well they hadn’t reacted _badly_ to him, but he had noticed that people seemed to be afraid of him? They would shrink back when they caught sight of him, something he found odd but hadn’t really had time to think about it.

And then, when he made it to where the akuma was, he had seen that Ladybug had already brought in Carapace and Rena Rouge, which was also odd because from the looks of it the akuma itself hadn’t been dangerous. It had already been taken down by the time he got there.

He of course had started to approach them, and asked what was going on, and they had turned to him and started to attack. Claiming he was a murderer and that they needed to bring him in. He hadn’t really stuck around after that. And thus, had begun the chase into the sewer.

“They thought I was a murderer?”, Adrien said, his voice laced with confusion. Plagg stopped with his wild gestures and stared at him in shock.

“ _Murder_?!”, Plagg sounded completely shocked, “ _you_ \-- why in the world would they think that?! You can’t even hold a grudge!”

“I don’t know,” Adrien said morosely, his head dropped into his hands, “I was kind of hoping you would know what they were talking about.”

Plagg shook his head, “I’m as in the dark as you are, this time.” He turned to Adrien’s computer, “But maybe there’s something on the Ladyblog? As annoying as she is, that reporter is pretty good at keeping her blog up to date,” he suggested.

“Yeah,” Adrien said slowly, taking a minute to reply, too long for Plagg’s liking, but he would take what he could get. Adrien moved towards the computer, and unfortunately passed next to Plagg, allowing Plagg to get a whiff of him.

“Ok, wait, you need to go shower, you stink like a sewer. And take care of that wound too. As urgent as this is, I don’t want to be responsible for it getting infected or something.”

“Ah, that’s true,” Adrien chuckled, his voice sounding hollow, running his hand through his hair, “I think I have a med-kit somewhere in the bathroom, so I should be able to put some bandages on it.”

“Great, go take care of that. The computer isn’t going anywhere.” Plagg encouraged Adrien. 

After Adrien closed the door Plagg collapsed on the bed. He didn’t know what was going on. All he knew was that there had been an akuma, Adrien had transformed, and then there had been an incredible amount of fear coming from Adrien and Plagg hadn’t been able to help. 

And now Adrien was injured, in shock, and apparently Ladybug, Rena Rouge, and Carapace had all been after him for murder. Which made no sense to Plagg because Adrien was about as far from murdery as you could get. Well, for the moment. Plagg wasn’t going to hold out on him not ready to murder Gabriel in a few years if their relationship didn’t change.

Plagg looked out the windows that encompassed the entire wall, and he wondered if he should quickly go and see Tikki. Just to ask her if she knew what had happened. 

He turned back to the bathroom door, where he could hear the water running. No, he couldn’t leave Adrien right now. But he would definitely head over to talk to Tikki once Adrien was asleep.

* * *

Adrien pulled up the Ladyblog, dread pooling in his stomach at what he might find. The words ‘murderer’ echoing in his head. He just hoped that this was all the work of some akuma and would be taken care of quickly. 

He looked at the most recent news on the blog, and his heart felt like it would stop.

**Ladybug and company seen chasing down the murderer of the Saville Family**

He scanned through the news, trying to find anything that would tell him more about the situation. 

“Wait,” Plagg interrupted Adrien’s scanning, “there’s something odd about this.”

Adrien gave Plagg a confused look, “Ummm, yeah, they think we murdered this family.”

Plagg shook his head, “No, look close kid. Throughout this whole thing, they haven’t mentioned your name once! They just say, ‘the perpetrator’, not ‘Chat Noir’.”

Adrien paused. Yeah, that was actually pretty weird. Adrien’s face brightened, “Does this mean that this whole thing has just been a case of mistaken identity?”

Plagg shook his head, “If it were just that, then Ladybug wouldn’t have chased you. You’re her partner, she should have recognized you.” Plagg hated the way Adrien’s face fell when he finished, “Hey, keep your hopes up, you never know what we’ll find.”

They both continued scanning the report. Plagg’s eyes were wide with shock by the end of the report, Adrien looking like someone had sucked the life out of him. 

“But-- what-- how?!”, Plagg stuttered, not believing what he was seeing. The report was making the claim that the person that Ladybug was chasing down had murdered the Saville family just two days ago. 

The family consisted of the mother, two children, and an unknown father. The mother and two children had been killed apparently, but no mention of the father was made. Witnesses claimed that a figure in a black cat suit, with a belt for a tail, green eyes, and blond hair, had committed the murder. 

And looking through the rest of the Ladyblog provided even less information. As in, any mention of Chat Noir that used to be there, was gone. The stories saying that Ladybug was the only hero that France had until Rena Rouge and Carapace appeared. 

Adrien kept looking, he felt like his whole world was being torn apart. Chat Noir was his freedom, his way of just being himself. There wasn’t any worries about being his father’s son, he was just-- well, he was just him. And now it was gone. 

Adrien slumped back in his chair, a hand over his lower face, his eyes filled with horror. Plagg flew to his shoulder and patted his cheek.

“Hey, it’s ok, we’ll figure this out,” he said comfortingly, “No one forgets my kittens that easily.” 

Adrien smiled slightly at that, at least he had Plagg still. At that though a thought dropped into his head. Adrien’s head jerked to Plagg ,“I can’t go out as Chat Noir can I? Not with everyone thinking I did this,” he waved to the screen. 

“Well, I mean, you can, you just can’t get caught!”, Plagg said mischievously, hoping that news would cheer Adrien up a bit.

Adrien was shaking his head fervently before Plagg finished his sentence, “No Plagg, I don’t want--” he stumbled over his words, looking at the floor, a pit of dread building in his stomach, “I don’t want them to chase me down again. I don’t want to chance that.” He looked up, eyes glistening, “Today was horrible, I felt like a bad guy. And I had to hurt Rena Rouge to get away, so I’m not going to go out as Chat Noir while this is unresolved.” 

Plagg sighed sadly, “How did I end up with a responsible chosen?”, he said fondly.

Adrien snorted, “You ended up with me cause you chose me, remember?” Plagg rolled his eyes, but didn’t answer back.

Adrien looked back at the computer, thinking. “Tomorrow I have school, so I can probably ask everyone there if they know what’s going on?” he planned out loud. Perhaps someone would have something helpful. Well, something more than ‘he’s a murderer’ at least. 

Plagg nodded, worry showing in his eyes, “It’s as good a plan as any. We don’t have anything else to go off of, and we can’t really do anything else.”

Adrien sighed, the plan, as small and short as it was, helped bring a sense of calmness to his mind. 

Tomorrow then. He and Plagg would figure things out, and fix it. Hopefully.


	2. A Plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More information is learned at school, and a plan is brought together. Sort of.

Adrien walked into the school. After sleeping he did feel a little better, less like the world was going to destroy him and more like it was just going to do it’s best to crush him. 

He walked into his classroom, feeling dread pooling in his stomach. He was holding out hope that everything the day before had been a horrible mistake. 

Most everyone was already sitting down in their seats already, and Adrien sat down in his usual seat next to Nino. He was talking avidly to Marinette and Alya about the previous day’s events.

“I can’t believe that guy got away!” Nino complained. Alya folded her arms and huffed in annoyance.

“I know, it’s frustrating to think we have a murderer just walking free out there,” she said heatedly, “I’m sure Rena Rouge, Carapace, and Ladybug will get him next time he shows his face.”

Adrien frowned in confusion at that, “You guys are talking about the, uh, suspect being chased yesterday? Isn’t it the responsibility of the cops to chase down people like that?”

Marinette nodded, blush creeping up her cheeks, “Well, yes, that’s true that the cops usually deal with things like this. But this guy isn’t normal!”, her eyes widened at that, “Or well, that is to say, I heard from someone that he has a power like Hawk Moth. Definitely didn’t figure that out myself.” She chuckled weakly.

Alya nodded eagerly, “I’ve even heard that they are going to call him Chat Noir!”

Adrien froze. That was  _ his _ name! Or at least, it was a superhero name,  **not** a supervillain name or whatever they all thought he was. 

“Wait, um, isn’t it a little too soon to be naming him something like that?” Adrien interjected. “I mean, he only just appeared yesterday, right?”

“It’s never too soon to name a supervillain!” Alya said zealously. “I wonder if he’s working with Hawk Moth or if he’s working alone.” she wondered.

“Nah,” Nino shook his head, “As bad as Hawk Moth is, I’ve never seen him actually kill anyone, so I doubt the two are working together.”

Adrien felt his mouth open in shock. They thought Chat Noir was  _ worse _ than Hawk Moth?! Well, if he was an actual murderer he could understand that reasoning, but he  _ isn’t _ !

Adrien glanced around the rest of the classroom, noticing that some of the others were listening in. And they seemed to agree with what Nino and Alya were saying. Everyone seemed to think that Chat Noir was evil.

“Look, guys--” Adrien started.

“Ok everyone, class is starting,” Miss Bustier walked into the classroom, interrupting Adrien. “Please, quiet down and take your seats.”

Adrien sighed, frustrated over what little he had learned, and turned to face the front of the classroom. It wasn’t a case of mistaken identity. At least not in the way he had hoped. 

No one recognized the name Chat Noir as one of the superheroes of France. They all thought he was a killer. 

_ Is this the work of an akuma? _ , Adrien thought to himself. If it was, then that meant that Hawk Moth had planned this. But Adrien just couldn’t see how this would benefit him. Was he hoping to akumatize Chat Noir? Or was he just trying to isolate him? But if that was his plan why not do it to Ladybug? She was the more powerful of the two. If he could do this, why not make the people think they were both villains?

Adrien let out a deep sigh, running his hands through his hair. He really wanted to talk with Plagg and run these ideas by him. Adrien didn’t know if any of this was even possible. Memory alteration on this level seemed incredibly powerful. So was it even possible for Hawk Moth to give it to someone? And there hadn’t been any signs of a fight anywhere in the city before Adrien had been chased down. 

Maybe this was an alternate universe? Adrien didn’t know if that was possible either, but it was definitely the better option in his eyes. An alternate universe would mean that he hadn’t been forgotten, just misplaced. Of course he had no clue how he would have ended up in an alternate universe, but he also didn’t know how memory alteration on this level could have happened either. 

Nino nudged Adrien, pulling him out of his thoughts.

“Hey, dude,” he whispered, voice laced with concern, “You ok? You were spacing out for while there.”

Adrien gave a halfhearted smile, “Yeah, sorry. Just a little distracted is all.” Nino didn’t look convinced, but didn’t push either, and Adrien was grateful for that. He didn’t know how he could even begin to explain his situation.

Adrien couldn’t pay attention to the teacher for the rest of the day. A part of him was relieved, he had been worried that no one would remember who Adrien was, but that didn’t seem to be the case. 

As soon as class finished, Adrien quickly excused himself, claiming that he was needed at home for some piano practice. He needed to speak with Plagg, and felt that it was a little more important than hanging out and getting ice cream.

* * *

“Well, I can tell you it’s not an alternate universe we’ve ended up in by accident.” Plagg told Adrien. Adrien groaned, he had been banking a lot of his hopes on that theory.

“How do you know?” he asked Plagg, “How do you know for certain that there aren’t parallel universes, and that we couldn’t have ended up in one by accident?”

Plagg sighed, “Kitten, look, I’ve been around awhile. I know quite a lot of things. And I know there aren’t any parallel universes we can connect to because of the existence Bunnix and her kwami.” Adrien ran a hand over his face. That was true. Bunnix, in a way, proved that alternate universes didn’t exist, her coming back and changing the past had directly affected her future.

Adrien let himself fall across his bed, “That means that this is probably an akuma. And if it’s an akuma then Hawk Moth has probably planned this whole thing,” he groaned.

“Which doesn’t make any sense!” He continued angrily, “If this was his plan, why hasn’t he done anything?!”

Plagg shook his head, “I don’t know, but we need more information about this.” Plagg floated towards Adrien thoughtfully, “More specifically, we need information about the murder you are being accused of.”

“The Saville family murder?” Adrien said thoughtfully, nodding his head slowly, “That’s true. It’s what I’m being accused of, so the more information I have about that, then maybe I can figure everything else out. But where can I get the most information...”

Adrien’s eyes lit up as an idea popped into his head. 

“Evidence! The police always pack away any evidence at a crime scene!” he gasped excitedly, “All I have to do is break into their evidence room, find what they have, and then we’ll have our information!”

Plagg stared at Adrien incredulously, “Whoa whoa who!” he waved his arms frantically, “ _ Break in _ ?! Adrien! We are trying to prove that you  _ didn’t _ break the law! And I’m pretty sure that breaking the law while trying to prove that you didn’t break the law is counterintuitive.” 

“Plagg,” Adrien looked at Plagg, eyes pleading, “We don’t have any other way of getting information. I don’t know what else we can do.”

Plagg groaned despairingly into his paws, “Tikki is gonna laugh me out of the atmosphere when she hears about this. Fine,” he looked at Adrien, “We’ll go  _ break into _ the police evidence room.”

“ _ But _ ,” he said, interrupting Adrien’s cheering, “We aren’t gonna do it tonight, we are going to wait until we have more information about the police station itself. Cause I don’t want to get there and find out that we don’t know where the evidence room is.”

Adrien just grinned, eyes filled with hope again, “Don’t worry Plagg, I can talk to Sabrina, her father is a police officer, and she might know something.”

Plagg gave a small sigh as Adrien started planning how they would handle this. He understood that getting more information about the Saville murder was important. He was the one to suggest it, but he hadn’t expected Adrien to jump to breaking the law so quickly. 

He guessed it was because Adrien was feeling desperate and trapped. They both were. They couldn’t go out as Chat Noir, which had been their freedom ever since they had joined. 

And it had only been a little more than a day since they found out that they couldn’t go out. Plagg didn’t want to know what it would be like in a couple of weeks. Adrien would probably be planning ways to leave the country just to rebel.

Plagg himself was feeling trapped too. Usually he could talk to Tikki, or the other kwami, even if he was in the ring and kept hidden by the Guardian. Even when he was with Adrien, he would often go out and meet Tikki. But now he couldn’t do that.

Plagg had tried talking to Tikki the night before, while Adrien slept. And it was safe to say that she didn’t remember Chat Noir either. She and the Guardian thought that Plagg had been taken, just like Nooroo. 

When Plagg had tried to explain what had actually happened, she had just looked at him with pity.

“Plagg,” she had said sadly, “I think you were brainwashed by Hawk Moth. He’s just trying to use you to get me as well.”

He had left fairly quickly after that. Adrien was his kitten, his chosen, and Plagg had  _ not  _ been brainwashed. He wondered if this was how Adrien felt the day before, when he realized that his friends were now his enemies, that they thought he was a killer. That sick feeling in the pit of your stomach. 

Plagg watched Adrien study the news article about the Saville family. Even if this plan was idiotic, and more than likely to end with them in jail, it was still their only hope. They didn’t know where Hawk Moth was, they couldn’t talk to the Guardian, Ladybug, or anyone at school about this, and for some reason the world thought they were killers. 

Plagg felt a growl slip out. Whoever had done this, trapped them like this, was going to regret it. His chosen, whether it was from his influence or whether they always had it in them, they tended to not deal well with being trapped. And neither did Plagg.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so a couple things that should be known about this is that I think the timeline of Miraculous Ladybug is completely wack, I’m not sure what episodes air when, so I’m just gonna make a list of things that either happened, or things that are known by certain characters and what not. If you have questions, just ask.
> 
> Lila Rossi just plain doesn’t exist here. I think her character is kind of useless, and only exists to create drama, which is dumb because there are better ways to do that. Like everyone forgetting who Chat Noir is.
> 
> Ladybug knows who Carapace and Rena Rouge are, but they do not know who she is, and Chat Noir does not know who they are and vice versa. (I can’t remember if or when Chat Noir knows their identities, so for the sake of this fic, he just doesn’t know)
> 
> Obviously Chat Noir and Ladybug don’t know each other’s identities.
> 
> Chat Noir and Ladybug have only met Bunnix the one time. 
> 
> I also wasn’t quite sure about the characterization of Plagg. From what I’ve seen he seems kind of lazy, and doesn’t really actually talk to Adrien about things outside of asking for cheese, or talking about love interests. I don’t really like that cause it makes him kind of useless to Adrien as a guide or helping hand, which I kind of thought he was supposed to be. So I apologize if he seems way out of character in this fic.
> 
> Actually, I'm pretty sure that I'm probably gonna end up butchering everyone's characterization somehow. So I'll just apologize in advance for that.


	3. A New Player

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A new player enters the field.

Walking to class, Adrien felt like the world was just a bit brighter. Having a plan really did change how hopeless he had felt the day before. The current plan was simple. Talk to Sabrina and ask her questions about the layout of the police station. And more specifically, figure out where the evidence room was. Once he had that information, he and Plagg could plan how to break into the evidence room.

Adrien smiled brightly. For whatever reason, having a plan made everything seem a little easier to handle. He smiled at Chloe on his way into the classroom. She was on her phone, and only gave him a wave in return. 

Walking into the classroom, he glanced around. He saw that Marinette and Alya were already sitting at their desk - and across from them was Sabrina.

He walked towards Sabrina, a slight hop to his step.

“Hey, Sabrina!”, he gave her a small wave. Sabrina pulled back in surprise.

“Oh! Hey, Adrien.” she said, chuckling nervously, “Was there something you needed from Chloe? She’s just outside, and I can get her if you need her.”

“No, that’s okay.” Adrien shook his head, he didn’t want to deal with Chloe just yet. “I actually wanted to ask you something.”

Sabrina’s eyes widened in surprise, “Really? What would you need to ask  _ me _ ?”

“Well,” he said, “I was thinking about the law recently, and I realized that I actually didn’t know much about the police here. I’ve never even seen their station! And so now, well, I’m just really curious about the way it looks.” He finished off with a smile, hoping she wouldn't question his reasoning too much. 

He and Plagg had really tried to figure out the best way to ask about the layout of the police station without it being suspicious. But there weren’t a lot of ways to ask about that sort of thing without it somehow being part of your job. So, here was hoping nobody questioned this curiosity of his.

“You’ve never seen any part of the station before?” Sabrina asked incredulously. 

Adrien rubbed the back of his head nervously, “Well, I’ve seen the main part, the public part. But I was wondering what the rest of it looked like. You know, like the evidence room and the um… well, all the other rooms.”

“Oooh,” Sabrina’s face cleared in understanding, “Well, I can’t really help you there. I’ve never been in any other part of the station either. Sorry.” She said, an apologetic look on her face.

Well, crap. Adrien hadn’t thought of that. He’d just assumed that she would have seen the rest of the station at some point. 

“Oh, well, um…” Adrien didn’t know what to do. This had not been something he or Plagg had planned for. They had both thought Sabrina would know more about the station. He could feel Plagg scrambling around in his breast pocket. He was probably trying to communicate a new plan to Adrien, but Adrien’s mind had blanked. 

Before he could turn and go to his seat he felt a tap on his shoulder. Turning around he saw Marinette standing there. She was nervously shifting her feet, refusing to meet his eyes.

“Hey, Marinette.” He smiled at her, “Was there something you needed?”

“Um, well, I just heard you talking with Sabrina. I wasn’t eavesdropping!” she exclaimed, raising her hands defensively, “ I just, overheard. And I thought that, you know, maybe, well, getting a tour of the police station would be a great field trip!” She said quickly, her words coming out in a rush, “I could ask Miss Bustier for us to do it in a few days.”

Adrien felt stunned. A field trip? A tour of the police station? That would be fantastic! He would be able to see it himself which would be better for planning than just learning about the layout from someone else.

“That would be great, Marinette!” he said earnestly. She blushed, her face turning almost entirely red.

“Ah, you’re welcome, it’s-- um-- it’s no problem,” she stuttered, before rushing back to her desk.

Adrien sat down himself, feeling even happier than he had just ten minutes before. 

“Well,” he heard Plagg whisper from his pocket, “That worked out incredibly well.”

Adrien just smiled. Yeah, it had. Which was really weird, cause he usually had bad luck. But he wouldn’t question it right now. Right now, he would just enjoy this bit of good luck. Who knows, maybe Ladybug’s good luck had just rubbed off on him a little.

* * *

“You aren’t trying.”

“Believe me, I am trying as hard as I can.”

Dark chuckling, “Obviously not hard enough. You don’t have them yet.”

“It’s a slow process, if I rush it, too much damage will be done.”

“We don’t care about the damage. We care about progress. And you are not making progress. It is clear to me that you are not committed to this--”

“ **NO**! I  **am** committed, I will try harder to get them.”

“Hmph, we’ll see. You have one week to show that you are making progress. If nothing has changed, then-- well, you know what will happen then.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so this chapter was crazy hard to write for some reason. I think it’s because it’s just mostly an intermediate chapter. But either way, it’s done now. And I know it’s super short, but I didn’t want to add anything else in the chapter because it would have felt crammed to me.


	4. The Crime Scene

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time to start his own investigation.

Moving quietly over the roofs of Paris, Adrien paused every now and then to listen and make sure that the other heroes weren’t around. 

In the distance he could hear an akuma attack, so that would keep the other heroes busy. As horrible as it was Adrien hoped that the battle went long enough that he made it back.

It was late, the sun had gone down, and Adrien had made the, probably idiotic, decision to go out in his suit. He wanted to check out the Saville home, where the family had been murdered. 

Plagg had told him this wasn’t the brightest of his decisions, but he had to start his investigation somewhere. The field trip to the police station was going to take place the next day and Adrien wanted to get a good look at the crime scene beforehand.

He had made sure to read up on how to handle crime scenes- he didn’t want to accidentally ruin it or implicate himself somehow. And the main thing he had found about how to deal with crime scenes was, don’t touch anything. Pretty simple.

His plan to get into the house was just to find a window that wasn’t locked, open it, take a look around, and then leave. He looked up how to open windows from the outside, and it didn’t seem complicated. 

He just hoped Father didn’t look at his browsing history. 

He didn’t know what he was going to find at the scene, and he was really concerned about that. Was there going to be blood? How bad did the place look? He’s pretty sure they removed the bodies- if they hadn’t then he wasn’t going to stick around. 

He finally saw the house, and he paused on the roof of a nearby building.

A police car was on the corner, empty. Which meant the police man was probably patrolling. 

_“I’ll have to make sure to avoid him,”_ Adrien noted. He glanced down at his suit, _“I guess it’s a good thing this has changed then. As much as I don’t like it, it’ll be helpful in hiding.”_

When he transformed tonight, he had noticed that his whole look had changed. No longer was he wearing the leather catsuit of Chat Noir. Instead he seemed to be wearing a softer material, no tail, a hood, and a mask that covered the lower part of his face.

Transforming back to ask Plagg had just led to Plagg telling him that the costume will change as time goes on. And that this whole debacle had probably brought about the change in the costume.

Adrien didn’t like it, but he couldn’t deny its usefulness in this situation. 

He moved to the roof of the Saville home and climbed down the side, his clawed gloves helping him find grip on the wall. From what he could find the family lived on the second floor of the apartment complex. And the police _were_ patrolling this building. Reaching the window he started to pry it open.

“What are you doing?” 

Adrien froze.

“Hmph, thought I heard something is all.”

He looked down. Two cops. One was staring out into the road, looking side to side. The other was staring bemusedly at him. 

“Right, and is there anything there now? Or did it disappear?” 

“Hey! I didn’t say I saw something, I said I heard it.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Look, you’ve been hearing crap all night now, and we haven’t seen anything. So please, just let us finish our shift. We’re almost done for the night.”

“Yeah, and what if it _was_ something? What about then…”

They’re voices faded as they continued their patrol.

Adrien had to take a couple minutes to unfreeze himself from the wall.

 _“It’s ok, it’s ok, they didn’t see you, and maybe didn’t hear you, no big deal.”_ Now if he could just get himself to believe that.

With a final glance towards where the cops used to be he carefully opened the window. No alarms went off. That was a plus. He hadn’t been sure what to do if there were alarms. Figured he might as well just try it and if they went off then he would just run.

He moved into the room as silently as he could. As he did he smelled something… metallic? 

Landing on the floor he closed the windows behind him. Turning around he let his eyes adjust to the darker room, his cat eyes using the light from outside to illuminate the rest of the room.

His breath caught in his throat. Two beds were in the room, and dried blood covered them. A part of Adrien’s mind made note that the smell must have been blood. 

He needed to move. He couldn’t stick around here, he needed to move and figure out what he could. He forced himself to look around the room, careful not to touch anything. Toys, dresser, nightlights. And the outline of two small bodies in tape on the bed.

‘ _This must have been the children’s room_ ’, Adrien felt sick. He’d read the article on the Ladyblog… but actually seeing it made it real in a way it hadn’t been before.

‘ _These kids were murdered, and everyone thinks Chat Noir did it.’_

He didn’t even know how old they had been.

Breathing shallowly, Adrien approached the beds, looking for some sort of clue he could use to figure out what happened. ‘ _The blood is only on the beds around the tape. No trail.’_ he observed, feeling a little sick. Most likely this meant that the kids had been killed while sleeping. 

He moved out of the room, into a hall. The right led to a master room. Walking in he saw a bed along the far wall. He couldn’t smell any blood like he did in the children’s room. The bathroom showed no disturbances either. Which left the living room and kitchen.

He moved silently down the hall and could already smell the blood coming from the other end.

Entering the living room, the first thing to draw his attention was the pool of blood on the floor in front of the front door and another outline of a body.

‘ _The mother’_ , a distant part of his brain supplied. The article had said the mother and her two children were found murdered. The two children had been in their beds, which left the mother to die here.

Adrien swallowed. So, the children died in their sleep in bed, and the mother at the door. Perhaps she had inadvertently opened the door to the murderer? The murderer rang the bell and she died after letting him in?

‘ _But why? I don’t think a robber would have killed her right off the bat.’_ , Adrien speculated. He hadn’t seen anything that screamed “ _robbery”_ in the house yet. But then again, he wasn’t exactly a detective. And a robbery wouldn't explain how Hawkmoth was tied into it.

Adrien moved to the small kitchen, carefully watching the floor for any blood. He did _not_ want to step in any and accidentally leave behind evidence that he had been here.

He reached the kitchen door and let himself look around a little more. Any clues to be found at this point would most likely be clues pointing to why the murderer had come--

‘ _More blood?!’_

He could see blood on the counter and a pool of blood next to the fridge. And another body outline. He stood, frozen and confused. 

_‘Was there a fourth person?’_

No. There hadn’t been any mention of a fourth person in the Ladyblog. But then again Alya wasn’t a real journalist and had been wrong before. But other news sites had said the same thing when he had done some double checking. Were the police keeping it quiet then? _Why_? 

_Click._

‘ _Door!’,_ Adrien made it across the kitchen and pulled himself atop the fridge in one leap. From his vantage point he watched the front door open. He could see the police tape in front of the door, and a person ducking beneath it. The police- the ones patrolling the complex!

The policeman carefully avoided the pool of blood as he stepped further into the apartment. He had a flashlight and kept the apartment lights off. Presumably to prevent an intruder from realizing they were there.

He walked slowly and seemed to be searching for something. He moved into the hall, poking his head into both rooms. Adrien watched as he moved further into each, spending a couple minutes in both.

“This room is clear.”

Adrien just about screamed.

Another policeman had walked into the apartment while Adrien had been watching the first one. This one was moving his flashlight around the front rooms. Including the kitchen.

Luckily he never moved the flashlight high enough to spot Adrien on the fridge.

The first man walked back in, giving the second man a disgruntled look. Neither of them noticed Adrien trying to become one with the fridge.

“The bedrooms are clear too.” the first man grumbled out, “But I could have sworn I saw someone pass by the window.”

The second man shook his head, “Ok, maybe you did, but there isn’t a person here so maybe it was just a stray cat or something?”

The first man stared incredulously, “Really?! That would've had to be a really large cat!” 

“Look, I don’t know man, all I know is that we’ve climbed up here and we haven’t found anything.”

The first man huffed, “Fine, maybe it’s just me being paranoid.” He brushed past the second man and went out of the room, the second man following close behind.

Adrien stayed where he was, his heart still beating quickly, he should have been more careful about walking in front of and through the window. 

_“Ok, looks like I’m cutting this investigation a little short.”_

Making his way off the fridge he took another careful look around the kitchen. He hadn’t gotten a good look before the police walked in.

The counter was cracked, blood on the ground, most of the kitchen items were thrown about as if there had been a fight.

“ _What happened here?_ ”, he thought in frustration. The papers said only three had died, but the scene here indicated four. Why keep that hidden? Was the fourth the murderer? And if it was, why do they think that Chat Noir is the murderer? 

He growled in frustration. He had hoped that things would make sense if he got a look at the scene. That maybe he could figure it out without having to break in to the police station. But that was looking unlikely at this point.

Adrien moved back into the children’s room, keeping himself from looking at the beds again, and keeping himself lower to the ground to avoid making shadows in the windows.

He opened the window quietly, thankful that he hadn’t left it open earlier. The cop would have noticed and then he really would have been in trouble. He moved out the window, closing it behind him again, and climbed the wall to the roof. He could still hear the faint sounds of an akuma attack. 

Good. At least something was going his way tonight. 

He now had a lot to think about. And now he needed to actually use the tour of the police station to plan for a break in. He knew he was the one who suggested it, but that had been when he was feeling like the world was ending. Now that some time had passed and he thought about it more, he would really rather not break in.

Adrien raced across the roofs, thoughts racing through his mind.

There had been some part of him that had hoped that it wouldn’t be necessary, that the crime scene would offer up enough answers to work from that information. But it only brought more questions. 

The tour of the police station was tomorrow - the rise in akuma attacks hadn't gotten it cancelled yet. 

He jumped over a large gap between houses.

A fourth person had died. That’s what kept throwing him for a loop. And the police were keeping it quiet.

He reached his bedroom window and he moved through it to land on his bedroom floor.

Why did things have to become more complicated?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait on this chapter. So I wasn’t sure I made it clear but Adrien decided to go out as Chat Noir because he figured it was worth the risk to look at the crime scene and see if he even needed to break into the police station.  
>  Hopefully Adrien’s thought process on the crime scene makes sense. Wasn’t sure on how to describe a crime scene outside of what I have here.  
>  Also didn't know how noticeable I made it but Adrien was able to hear the door being opened due to the power of his kwami. He had enhanced hearing and the ability to see in the dark.


	5. Destabilizer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The field trip did not go as planned...

“What do you think, Plagg?” Adrien asked, leaning over his desk. His concentration mostly on the permission slip he was currently forging his father’s signature for.

Plagg glanced over Adrien’s shoulder, “I think you have a while to go before you become a master forger,” he snorted.

Adrien turned and scowled, “I don’t mean _this_ , I mean what we learned last night. There were four outlines, meaning there were four bodies; four murders.”

Plagg hummed in thought, “And what do you think that means?”

Adrien returned to the slip, “I was thinking last night, after we got back, and I started thinking that, maybe it’s a cop? Like a cop murdered them, and then he and his buddies are trying to cover it up.”

“Maybe,” Plagg said thoughtfully, “but too much doesn’t make sense for that. First, we know Hawkmoth must be involved somehow because of the missing memories, and if it’s a cover up why didn’t they cover up the all the murders? Why only one murder? And if it was a cop turned akuma, and it’s the same one that made everyone think you’re the murderer, why didn’t he just use his powers to make everyone forget the people murdered, or just forget the murder entirely?”

Adrien groaned, slumping over his desk, “There’s just too much we don’t know. I think going to the crime scene gave us more questions than answers.”

Plagg floated over to Adrien and patted his shoulder, “Well, the more you know, the more you know you don’t know. Or at least, that’s what Tikki says.”

Adrien raised his head and stared at Plagg, “The more you know, the more you know you don’t know? I didn’t realize you knew such poetic sayings, Plagg.” He ignored Plagg’s outrage. He had really hoped that the crime scene would just magically have the answers. 

‘ _Guess that just shows how optimistic I am,_ ’ and this normally wouldn’t bother him to be disappointed, but this was a little more serious than Father not coming to dinner.

He looked back at the permission slip, “I think it looks good enough. Miss Bustier won’t be expecting a forged slip from me anyways, so she shouldn’t look too closely.”

Plagg snorted, “Not like she’d look close anyways, she has waaay too much trust in you kids. I don’t know how she’s stayed as a teacher for this long.”

Adrien chuckled at Plagg, this wasn’t the first time he’d complained about the leniency of the teachers at the school. Plagg complained how they used to offer more of a challenge to students. And Adrien really couldn’t say whether the teachers at his school were the norm or not. Either way, he was glad Miss Bustier trusted him. For now.

“I mean,” Plagg continued, “It’s not like I want you caught, but they should offer some sort of challenge, if you don’t have challenges how are you supposed to grow in skill?”

Adrien rolled his eyes, “I think I’ll manage somehow, Plagg. But we gotta go.” He stood up from his desk, picking up the form and shoving it into his backpack.

He ran towards the door, and opened it slightly, peeking out to see if Natalie was there.

“Ya know,” Plagg drawled out, “I _can_ also act as a spy.”

Adrien paused and gave him an incredulous look, “Yeah, since when?”

He left Plagg spluttering in the air and ran down the stairs. He didn’t see Natalie anywhere, which was odd as she was usually waiting either at the bedroom door or the bottom of the stairs. But he wouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth. He didn’t need her asking about his schedule for the day.

Adrien dashed out the front door, Plagg slipping into his pocket. Gorilla was waiting out by the car. And narrowed his eyes when he didn’t see Natalie at the front door. Gorilla looked at Adrien as he skidded to a stop by the car door, and raised an eyebrow in question.

Adrien shrugged his shoulders, “She wasn’t waiting for me inside so I figured Father has her doing something else instead.”

Gorilla took a second to study the mansion, as if waiting for Natalie to appear before nodding and opening the car door and ushered Adrien in. Getting into the driver's seat he pulled out his phone. He figured that he could text Natalie or Mr. Agreste about it later. Could be that he was being overly paranoid but Natalie was usually very strict about making sure the schedule was followed. So he would ask, and if there was nothing to worry about then there’s nothing to worry about. But better safe than sorry.

* * *

“Alright, line it up!” Miss Bustier shouted to the kids. 

Adrien moved behind Nino as he came out of the bus, Plagg in his front pocket. The police station steps in front of the class.

He could feel all the nervous energy run through his body, making it difficult to stand still. He found himself tapping his foot and making other small movements in an attempt to divert his energy.

Nino glanced back and raised an eyebrow, “Dude, you good?”

Adrien smiled lopsidedly, “Yup, just excited to talk to the police.”

Nino snorted, “Hate to break it to you, bud, but it’s not gonna be that exciting.”

Adrien just smiled and shrugged his shoulders at Nino. It wasn’t like he could really explain what was making him excited/nervous.

Miss Bustier clapped her hands once, “Ok! Everyone must stay together. We will be following our guide through the station, _do not_ fall away from the group or you will be sent out to the bus.” She glared at the group, “ _No exceptions_.”

A young man, tall with black hair and in a police uniform, came out of the front doors in the middle of Bustier’s instructions and smiled. When she finished speaking he smiled in amusement, “It’s all right Miss, I’m sure if any do fall away we’ll be able to keep them in the holding cells for you.”

Adrien laughed quietly as he heard Chloe gasp in outrage behind him. Miss Bustier gave a small laugh in response and shook her head. The man turned back to the class.

“Ok now, everyone please just follow me.” the police man instructed, “My name is Officer Caron. I’ll be your guide through the station, and as your teacher said: please do not wander off. This place does hold a few criminals and while it isn’t anyone dangerous, we do not need you going into a room unattended. Understood?”

He waited until most of the students had nodded in assent.

“Good, now just follow me.” Officer Caron went through the doors, the student body following behind with Bustier taking up the end of the line.

* * *

“And here we have interrogation rooms on the right, and holding cells just down that hall.” Officer Caron pointed down the hall where there were stairs that led down. “We won’t be going there today as we do have several people in there.”

He paused next to the interrogation door, “Are there any questions so far?”

Adrien tuned out the other students as they asked about interrogation techniques the police were allowed to use, he should probably be horrified that that’s what they chose to ask about, but, priorities. He started mentally mapping what he knew of the station.

You have the double front doors of the station that opened to a small foyer and waiting area. Then there were stairs, not a full flight, to the main part of the station where you had the officers and detectives working. This area was rather huge to accommodate the amount of people working. There looked to be about twenty different detectives and police working at the moment.

‘ _I wonder if there will be just as many working at night?’_ he thought. He didn’t even know if he could sneak past only a few officers, much less 20 or more. Well, that’s a problem for later. 

On one side of the large area was a glassed off room that Officer Caron had said was the Chief’s office. He couldn’t see inside though because there were blinds covering the glass.

Then, crossing the whole room you reach the stairs going down. At the bottom of the stairs you could go left, right, or straight. The left hall would take you to the interrogation rooms, and the right hall took you to the holding cells. They hadn’t been told about the evidence room which Adrien was assuming was straight down that hall.

Adrien felt someone tap his shoulder, and he turned to see Sabrina. Her brow furrowed in confusion.

“Hey”, he whispered, “What’s up?”

She glanced at the officer and shrugged her shoulders nervously, “Well I just thought maybe you wanted to ask questions too. Cause you seemed really interested in the station the other day.”

Adrien smiled, “Well, yeah, I guess the big thing was I wanted to ask where the evidence room is.”

“Evidence room?”

Adrien, startled, turned around. Officer Caron was a lot closer than he had thought he was. Caron smiled at them both, “We do have an evidence room, and I’m sure you guys would be pretty interested in seeing evidence. But the evidence room is not open to the public, ever.”

Several students groaned in disappointment. Evidently some of the others had been hoping to actually see some real guns and knives that were used in these crimes rather than just hearing about it. 

Max piped in, “Well, it makes sense, if we were to touch something and leave fingerprints or possibly destroy fingerprints _or_ DNA it would destroy the case it had been gathered for,” he finished excitedly. 

Caron chuckled, “I’m glad you understand the position we’re in. So are there any more--”

Adrien raised his hand, “Um yes! I had a question!”

Caron gestured for him to continue.

_‘Ah crap’_ , Adrien thought, his nervous energy coming back full force. He had wanted to ask about the Saville family murder. But now that he was about to ask, it seemed odd to be asking about it. _‘I mean, normally I wouldn’t take notice of a case like th_ _is, I think._ _’_

Adrien could almost hear Plagg screaming at him to just ask his question and deal with it.

He pulled in a deep breath, “Well, so, there was that murder that happened like, a week and a half ago, right? And well, everyone has been saying that it’s this new supervillain that’s killed them,” Adrien swallowed nervously. His words seemed to be coming out more jumbled and, as he glanced around, the students were starting to pay more attention to what was being said. 

“And well, I guess I just wondered what the police’s thoughts were. Because all the newspapers were going off of what the heroes were saying. And the police haven’t really _said_ anything other than that the Saville family had been murdered and that the husband was missing and there hasn’t been evidence pointing to this new-- uh, villain right?”

Adrien rushed out the last sentence in a jumble of words. The entire student body was silent and had turned to stare at Caron.

Caron rubbed the back of his head, “Well, that is a really good question to have. And I can’t really answer it.”

He turned to address the whole class, “It’s an ongoing investigation. Yes, the heroes have made statements to the media, and we will take what they say very seriously. But there is currently no other evidence to point to it being this Black Cat villain.”

“Wait, what?!” Alya yelped in surprise, “What do you _mean_ there’s no evidence? You have three eyewitnesses who are saying that he committed the crime, how is that _not_ evidence?” Nino nodded along with her, his nose scrunched in confusion. Some of the class seemed to be in agreement, confusion in their faces.

Caron nodded to her, “Their statements are indeed evidence, but this is going to require more. We don’t know who this person is and we have no way of forming a motive. And this is something we don’t want to mess up, even if it _is_ the heroes giving the statement.”

Nino jumped in, “So, what kind of evide--” 

“Ah, Miss Bustiere?” Marinette interrupted, a nervous smile on her face, “May I be excused to the bathroom?”

Miss Bustire nodded, “Yes you may, take a partner with--”

Marinette was already running off, “It’s ok, I’ll only be a minute!”, she yelled back.

“Marinette!” 

“It’s alright, ma’am,” Caron reassured her, “The bathrooms aren’t that far away, she should be fine.”

Miss Bustiere raised an eyebrow, “Something tells me you don’t have much experience with teens,” she muttered. Giving a small sigh, “Ok, I think we’ve reached the end of our time here, so as soon as Marinette is back we’ll head back to the bus. Find your partners again!”

Adrien moved closer to Nino, and felt the ground shake slightly beneath him. He frowned, looked at Nino, “Did you feel that?”, he asked quietly.

Nino’s brows furrowed in concern and he nodded.

In the distance, the sound of a siren started, getting louder as multiple others joined in.

Adrien stiffened, the familiar sound of the siren filling him and his classmates with dread even as the entire police station jolted into action. 

Madame Bustier froze, and her jaw clenched, “Alright class, everybody follow me to the nearest Akuma shelter” she stated briskly, the experience from constant akuma attacks shining through as she, and most of the students, didn’t panic.

Around them the cops were pulling equipment together and radioing in, Caron had left the school group to pull together his equipment as well.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Alya reach for her bag and jump up in a quick motion, “I’m going to go film the Akuma for the Ladyblog!” She blurted out, running for the door.

“Alya!” Miss Bustiere shouted, panic filling her voice.

Nino quickly stood up as well, “I’ll go get her before she gets too far!” And runs out as well.

“Nino! No! Both of you get back here!” Bustier yelled, but the two ignored her and were out the door.

Before anybody could say anything else, the ground of the police station began to shake violently, and everyone ran quickly to the window. All gasping in shock as they could see a building near the station began to slowly crash into the ground, people running away in panicked screaming. 

“Dude! Are they fighting already?” Kim gasped, transfixed at the damage being caused. 

“Considering the average time it would take to reach this location from any point in Paris in comparison to how recent the sirens were… The odds aren’t likely,” Max stated in a subdued voice. 

“Students!”, Miss Bustier shouted, “You know the drill.” she said in a voice that was slowly becoming more firm, “Follow me immediately to -”, the ground shook, interrupting her.

The class started screaming, Adrien could see pieces of the building starting to crack from the shaking, the windows shattering.

“Everybody! Leave the building **now**!” Lieutenant Raincomprix orders frantically, and everyone ran. Before anyone could reach the doors a horrific grinding could be heard. Adrien ran into Kim, who had stopped. He looked around Kim to see the front end of the building starting to collapse. Huge chunks of the ceiling falling down, blocking doors.

And the rest of the ceiling seemed to be following, the shaking seemingly never ending.

The students all broke any sort of formation they had at that point. Everyone running for some form of cover from falling building pieces.

Adrien desperately braced himself, he remembered something about the staying in doorways during earthquakes, did that apply here?!

Frantically looking for cover he turned, seeing Chloe and Sabrina still out in the open, a desk next to them. Debris was falling around them and neither seemed like they were going to go to safety.

Adrien dove for them. He had been staying out of hero fights, unable to deal with the idea of his friends hunting him down. But he was still Chat Noir, he still saved people, even if he wasn’t in costume. 

The world may have forgotten who he was, but he hadn’t and he never would.

He slammed into Chloe and Sabrina, shoving them back and under the desk, away from the debris. He felt a blinding pain at the back of his head and he fell.

“Adrien!” Chloe screamed.

Adrien blinked slowly, everything seemed blurry and was fading.

In the distance a loud voice could be heard, “Hahahaha! Arrest _me_ for the destruction of that building will ya?! That’s nothing! I’m the Destabilizer, I’ll get the miraculous from you heroes and you get to watch your precious city collapse into dust!”

* * *

Adrien blearily blinked. He was on his back, and he could see the desk above him. _‘Chloe must have dragged me here?’_ , he thought, a bit of pride coming through, although he would be even happier if she had been able to help more people.

He shifted around, trying to get a better look around him. And as he was sat up, he could see more fully the destruction this akuma had caused.

The air was cloudy with dust, and the world seemed like it was post-apocalyptic. The police building had completely collapsed, no roof, no walls. He could see the surrounding buildings, all in various states of collapse themselves, some appeared to be completely missing. In the distance he could hear screams and the sound of fighting, the ground still shaking from the tremors.

“Adrien!” someone sniffled behind him, and he tried to shift to see who it was.

Sabrina was huddled with Chloe, both covered in scrapes, bruises, and dust. Adrien let out a sigh of relief. They both were ok, or at least weren’t trapped under the rubble.

“Hey,” he smiled shakily at them, “How long was I out for?”

Sabrina shook her head and started crying. Chloe looked at him, and he feel the dread making him tense again. He had never seen her look this scared. Perhaps in the beginning of the akuma attacks, but over time they had gotten used to it, and in many cases the akuma were not overly threatening. Like the man with the pigeons.

“Chloe?” he asked tentatively.

She took a small breath, giving a shaky nod, “Right, um, you weren’t out for very long I don’t think. Kind of hard to tell.” Her eyes kept roaming over the rest of the police station, and Adrien followed them, not seeing anything other than the rubble on the ground and –

Oh.

There were deep holes. He couldn’t see into them, but there were parts of the police station floor that had completely collapsed into whatever tunnels it had been built above.

Adrien’s eyes widened, and he turned back to Chloe, “Where’s the rest of the class?!”

She covered her eyes and shook her head, “I don’t know. You fell down, I grabbed you to drag you under, and then we couldn’t see anything because of all of the dust.” She dropped her hand and looked at Adrien hopefully, “Maybe they got out the windows?”

Adrien looked towards the windows used to be, they weren’t too far from where the class had been, so it was possible.

He froze again, hand going to his front breast pocket.

_‘Was Plagg ok?’_ , he could feel the small lump of Plagg in his pocket and felt a small kick into his palm. Ok, Plagg was alright. Which, really, he probably didn’t need to worry about him.

“What’s wrong?” Sabrina asked, her voice sounding wet from crying.

“Ah, just wanted to make sure I hadn’t lost something.” Adrien said with a small smile. He turned to look out into the city, slowly standing up so he could see better.

His breathe caught. The streets… were gone. Collapsed with the buildings into the sewers and tunnels. Looking around he could see that the building that were completely missing had actually collapsed into some of these pits.

The ground shook slightly from what he presumed was the battle. Adrien could hear the ground cracking nearby, his eyes widened in horror.

He turned quickly to Chloe and Sabrina, “We need to get out of here! The ground is still shaking, and I think it’s going to collapse.”

Chloe stood shakily, pulling Sabrina up beside her, “Adrien, where do we go?! Yeah, the ground is going to collapse here, _but it’s collapsing **everywhere**_!”

Adrien paused at that, looking around for some answer. They couldn’t safely walk out of here. But they also couldn’t stay.

_‘Or maybe we could?_ ’ he thought, if the ground did collapse, then Miraculous Ladybug would fix whatever happened, right?

Another thought pushed forward viciously, _‘And if she loses?’_ Adrien froze, his heart stopping.

What if Ladybug couldn’t defeat this akuma? What happens then? Normally Adrien wouldn’t let himself worry about that outcome, as it just didn’t seem too likely with past akumas. But this one was, well, not only violent but something just seemed inherently different this time.

And Chat Noir wasn’t there to back her up.

Adrien felt a pang in his chest at that thought. He wanted to be helping her.

_‘But right now,’_ he thought, looking back up at Chloe and Sabrina, the ground shaking once again, and he decided, _‘right now they need my help.’_

He looked at his ring. It was true they couldn’t navigate the buildings and roads safely if they were just human, but as Chat Noir he was stronger, faster, and had better reflexes.

“Adrien?” Sabrina asked quietly, concern coloring her voice.

He nodded at her, “Ok, please don’t freak out, guys.”

Chloe looked at him strangely, “Don’t freak out about –"

“Plagg, claws out!”

“ _ADRIEN!_ ” Adrien heard Plagg screech.

“AAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!”

Adrien flinched at their combined screams. He supposes he can’t blame them, it was rather sudden, and Chat Noir, especially dressed as he is now, is not necessarily a comforting figure.

His costume was the same as the night he snuck out. Although he had regained a tail, though it wasn’t a belt anymore. Adrien eyed it cautiously, it seemed more… real…

Well, he wasn’t gonna touch that.

“You have a kwami?!” Chloe whisper shouted at him, then her eyes widened, “You’re the Black Cat killer?!”

Sabrina was in a similar state.

He grabbed Chloe’s hand, “Yes, I do, and no I did not kill those people, I was framed. We need to go _now_. Sabrina, grab Chloe’s hand. We’ll head away from the fight.”

Sabrina still looked like she was shocked but grabbed Chloe’s hand and followed as they moved carefully through the rubble to the front of the station.

As they walked quickly, Adrien could feel the more minute trembling of the ground. His ears could pick up the sounds of the ground cracking more easily, and it seemed he could better pinpoint what exactly was going to collapse.

_‘This is a lot better than I thought it would be.’_ He thought to himself. He might be able to just avoid any collapsing or unstable spots entirely.

They reached front relatively easily, Adrien heard cracking before the rest of the police station floor started giving away.

Adrien pulled them quickly down the stairs, which were partially intact, and they turned right. Away from where he could hear the fighting.

As they walked they could see the collapsed street on their left. They were careful to not get close to the edge. Unfortunately, the ground continued its shaking, and Adrien was starting to think the Akuma’s power must be attached to that because as soon as the shaking hit them, the ground became unstable. Adrien could feel it giving away.

“Grab the building,” he yelled back, jumping to his right and dragging Chloe with Sabrina behind her. He grabbed what was left of a railing that was still attached to its foundation.

The ground where they had been just collapsed.

_‘Was there even a tunnel under these sidewalks?!’_ Adrien thought, almost hysterically. He hadn’t ever been that curious about Paris’s underground, but now he was really wishing that reading about the sewers and catacombs of Paris had been a hobby he picked up.

He slowly pulled himself onto the small bit of foundation, pulling the other two up as well.

Sabrina was breathing heavily, “So, can you sense the unstable ground or something?”

Chloe jumped in, panting, “Yeah, how’d you know it was gonna collapse?”

Adrien just shrugged his shoulders, his face hidden with the hood and mask, “I don’t know, it’s kind of a mix of my cat senses. Don’t know how to explain it.”

Sabrina looked contemplative at that answer.

He stood up again, “Come on, we’ve gotta keep moving.”

They moved carefully, walking along the foundation until they could find more stable ground again.

The further they moved from the fight, the more stable the ground started becoming, and Adrien no longer felt the shaking from before. And the buildings here weren’t as broken. He breathed a small sigh of relief. Waking up and seeing everything, he had been half worried that all of Paris had been reduced to that.

He stopped as they started to reach buildings that had been barely touched by the akuma.

“Ok, guys, you keep going. I’m gonna head back.”

Chloe whirled around, “ _What!_ Oh no! You are _not_ going back! What will your father say? He’s got to be worried sick about you! And you need to tell him about your kwami!”

Adrien felt a small surge of guilt. His father didn’t know he had been at the station. He thought Adrien was in the school building, which was most likely untouched.

But Chloe’s last sentence registered in his head and he leapt forward, grabbing her wrist, “NO! Chloe, Father can _never_ know about my kwami, ok?”

She looked at him confused, “But why? He needs to know—”

Adrien shook his head vehemently and interrupted, “No, he doesn’t! You _know_ what he’ll do. He’ll take my kwami away, Chloe,” he looked at her beggingly.

_‘Hopefully the hood and mask don’t ruin the puppy eyes.’_

Evidently it didn’t, as Chloe stared at him for a minute before sighing, closing her eyes, “Ok. But me and Sabrina are going to come by to get answers, all right?”

Sabrina nodded determinedly at that, and looked hard at Adrien, “You said you weren’t the murderer. That you were framed. So, we need to figure out who framed you.”

Chloe wrinkled her nose, “Well, yes, that too I suppose, but I was referring to the whole ‘Adrien has a kwami and didn’t tell us’.”

“That too!” Sabrina said with another determined nod.

Adrien sighed in defeat. He could see a lost battle, well, usually. He supposed it’s a good thing they have something to fixate on other than that whole… experience.

He gave a small nod, “Ok, I’ll answer your questions whenever you both can come and ask them. But right now, I really have to go. This akuma is dangerous and I really think I might be able to help.”

Chloe jumped forward, hugging him tightly, “Look, you better be back to answer those question.”

He patted her back awkwardly, “Chloe, I’ll be fine.”

She let go, sniffling, “Let’s go, Sabrina.”

They turned and started running away from the destruction, he turned and ran towards it.

* * *

This was… bad. The area where the fight was taking place, and apparently had been for a while, there was nothing but a huge hole downward. Adrien could see Ladybug, Rena Rouge, and Carapace holding the sides of the pit, and using various ledges to fight Destabilizer.

And Destabilizer… well he… Adrien had never seen an akuma like him. And he hoped he never saw another. Destabilizer seemed to be made of mostly metal. Although, whatever skin you could see seemed more like it was just spare skin taped onto the metal. Even his face was like that.

Adrien’s stomach turned at that thought. This guy was huge, his metal body making him so much larger than everyone else. His hands would shift from hands into multiple metal blade whips.

_‘Do I join?’_ , with Sabrina and Chloe he had been positive that he could help. But now, he wasn’t sure. If he joined, he might be nothing more than a distraction. But if he didn’t, would they lose? Because right now, Destabilizer had the upper hand.

Adrien watched as the whips came down hard , Ladybug using her yoyo to move to another ledge, and Carapace used his shield to protect himself and Rena Rouge from them. The whips caused the ledge they were on to collapse.

Carapace quickly slammed the edge of his shield into the wall, providing a small ledge. Rena made a grab for his foot but ended up falling to an outcrop further below.

Ladybug used her yoyo, wrapping it around the whips tightly, but Destabilizer pulled her easily off balance and used the yoyo to slam Ladybug into the wall.

Rena Rouge jumped to attack him, but he let go of the yoyo to hit her, his hand going through the illusion. Carapace’s shield slammed into his head. But none of this seemed to faze Destabilizer.

He just started laughing, “Ahhhh, children. You should go home, give me your miraculous, and stop fighting a losing battle. If you keep fighting, I might decide to keep prizes!”

He slammed his foot into the ground, sending a tremor through the ground and outward. Anything that was still standing now starting to collapse as the ground became even more unsteady.

Adrien growled, _‘I can’t let them fight alone. I’m here, I should be able to help somehow.’_

He looked around, searching for something, his eyes settling on the stable ground that Destabilizer was on. If Adrien could get there, maybe he could Cataclysm it.

He immediately started moving down, praying he wouldn’t be seen. The pit was rather dark, the walls a dark brown, so it should be easy to hide.

That is, if the person you were trying to hide from doesn’t get slammed into you.

“OOF!”

Adrien slammed into an outcrop, Carapace landing on top of him. Carapace shook his head, and, upon seeing Chat Noir, tried to punch him. Chat dodged the punch.

“Hey! I’m trying to help you!” he snapped at Carapace.

Carapace sneered at him, “Yeah, sure you are. Help us by taking the miraculous? I think we’ll get along without it, thanks, and that costume change doesn’t disguise you as well as you think.”

Chat growled, and Carapace thought he saw a green glow come from the dark depths of the hood.

“If I had wanted to take the miraculous, I would have done it differently!”

Carapace snorted, “Yeah, right, go tell it to--”

“AAAAAAHHHH”

They both turned to Destabilizer, where Rena Rouge was being held in his hands.

“Let her go!” Ladybug yelled at him, yoyo up and ready to move once Rena Rouge was out of danger.

Destabilizer smirked, “No, I don’t think I will. I know Hawkmoth wanted the Ladybug miraculous, but I think the Fox will do just nicely as a consolation prize.”

He grabbed the necklace and tore it off, Rena Rouge screaming at him, Carapace lunged forward to stop him. But it was too late.

Adrien stayed where he was, frozen.

‘ _Alya?!’_

Destabilizer held up the necklace in triumph, dropping Alya to the ground. Carapace grabbed her and dragged her to safety before Destabilizer to react to him.

Ladybug stepped forward, swinging her yoyo, “You aren’t going to get to keep that!”

Destabilizer laughed again, “You’ve already lost a hero today, Ladybug. And you aren’t getting this necklace back!”

He tossed the necklace high into the air, Ladybug’s yoyo shot out to catch it, but before it could, a blue figure jumped across the chasm and snatched if from the air.

Adrien shook himself from his shock, he could feel Carapace keeping an eye on him, _‘I need to move, I can’t help anymore, and they’ll think I distracted them on purpose. Again_.’ He quickly moved up the wall, keeping an eye on the blue figure that landed on the other side of the chasm.

They were very pale and wore an all-blue dress that seemed to be made of feathers.

_‘Peacock feathers?’_ Adrien though incredulously. And just as quickly as she came, the figure was gone. Taking the Fox necklace with her.

Adrien looked back down into the chasm, Carapace had used the blue figure’s distraction to grab something from the metal cage of Destabilizer’s body and threw it to Ladybug.

_‘The akuma’_ he thought, guilt rising in him, _‘I should have stayed out of the fight. I couldn’t help, and now they’ll have more reason to believe that I work with Hawkmoth.’_

Reaching the top of the chasm he ran.

“Miraculous Ladybug!”

He saw the flash of light out of the corner of his eye, but he didn’t slow down or look back.

The ladybug magic _whooshed_ around him, undoing the damage caused by the akuma.

He moved into an alley once the magic had moved farther ahead, and quickly de-transformed. Plagg flew up into his face.

“ADRIEN! _You can’t just transform in front of people!!_ ”

Adrien shook his head at Plagg as he pulled in a gasping breath, everything that had happened finally catching up, “Plagg, we- um, we have some really serious problems right now, and I think that one might be at the bottom of the list.”

Plagg backed up a little, concern filling his big eyes, “What happened?”

Adrien could feel himself starting to shake, “Hawkmoth got the Fox miraculous—”

Plagg gave a strangled gasp, his eyes wide in shock.

“--and I think maybe it was my fault,” Adrien whispered in shame, closing his eyes.

Plagg shook his head vehemently, “Ok, nipping that in the bud. No, it wasn’t your fault.”

“You weren’t—”

“No! Adrien, I know you, and I trust you, ok?” Plagg stared into Adrien’s eyes fervently, “We’ll hash out the blame later alright? After you’ve given me details and when we’re back home, but right now I’m telling you, I trust that it wasn’t your fault.”

Adrien stared at Plagg, “But Plagg, they’ve never been able to get it before—”

Plagg interrupted again, “Adrien, let’s go back home. And from the comfort of your bed and cheese we can talk,” Plagg floated a little higher, looking around, “I can tell a lot of destruction happened, and you look really shaken, Adrien. And you’ve seen a lot of akumas. I think it’s safe to say that this one was different. So, home first,” he floated back to Adrien, concern in his big eyes.

Adrien closed his eyes and took in a shaky breath, nodding. Plagg said he could sense the amount of destruction, but he didn’t really know yet the amount of—well, and the rest of the class—

His breath caught. _‘Chloe said they probably made it out the windows, they couldn’t have been in the building.’_ He tried to comfort himself.

For some reason it didn’t work as well as he would like.

* * *

“And here you are, one miraculous.” Hawkmoth said, placing the necklace on the table. The sun shining through the butterfly window and casting light on it.

A man in a dark suit stepped closer, picking up the necklace, “We will accept this and allow you to continue.”

Hawkmoth nodded, giving a small breath of relief.

“But Hawkmoth, do remember that _this_ is not one of the one’s we _actually_ want. You still must provide them or… well, you already know.”

The man walked into one of the hidden halls, “We’ll be keeping in touch, Gabriel.”

Gabriel closed his eyes in regret as the wall closed over to hide the hall again.

“I should never have agreed to this.” He whispered. But it was already too late, he was in too deep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All right! So sorry for the ridiculously long wait on this chapter, just had a bunch of drama I needed to deal with. And this chapter ended up being about 3x as long as I expected. 
> 
> So, Adrien has now scoped out the police station, and a new akuma made an appearance. I really wanted to show just how violent this akuma was, and how different he was from past akumas. I might have had a little too much fun with the destruction. But yeah, I’ve always wanted to see what an akuma would be like if Hawkmoth were, you know, an actual villain. I do plan on having more violent akumas pop up. Or at least more, hmmm, insidious akumas.
> 
> Part of why Hawkmoth is only now doing more violent akumas is because of the pressure from “superiors”. So, at least in this story, the first time he attacked Chat and Ladybug he didn’t know they were kids, but after that first battle, he realized that, hey, these guys are kids, and so he chooses very kidlike villains. I know that this probably goes against canon, but as far as I’m aware, canon is a mess anyways. So, again, for this story, the first battle was a sort of serious villain, but then every villain after that wasn’t. Until recently.
> 
> I kind of left what happened to class a little unclear. Well, I say unclear, but I guess I mean that Adrien and company aren’t ever really gonna say it out loud because that would mean it actually happened. And the class themselves aren’t really aware of what happened because to them, they just blacked out and then woke up to everything fixed. 
> 
> I was also wanting to include Chloe and Sabrina more in the story, so they were the one’s that Adrien saved and got to see him transform. Hopefully, that didn’t seem forced. Trying to write their interactions was a little difficult because Chloe is hard to write in general, and Sabrina is just quiet and shy. But we’ll be seeing them more now because they want to help Adrien.
> 
> And I'm not sure if it was clear in the story, but the sirens that they initially hear are the Akuma Sirens. Sirens that go off as soon as an akuma is spotted. That way people don't have to have the news on if they want to know if an akuma is spotted. So, basically Tornado Sirens but for Akumas. I figured that after at least a year of akuma attacks that something like this would be made.
> 
> Anyways, hopefully you all like this chapter. I don’t know when the next will be written, but it’ll be sooner than this last one took! Probably.
> 
> I wasn’t able to go into much detail about the Destabilizer and whatnot, so here’s a little bio. Credit to my brother, shdowstep from fanfiction.net, for coming up with this villain.
> 
> The Destabilizer (for image look up Grewishka from Alita Battle Angel)
> 
> Abilities: Every step causes the area to shudder, and even a touch can cause a building to shake, and a push causes it to completely destabilize. Deep, taunting voice.   
>  Wanted for: Manslaughter against a supervisor after the supervisor had him arrested on the charge of deliberately causing damages to a construction building. Suspected of doing so for a bribe from a rival construction company.

**Author's Note:**

> This idea just sort of popped in my head one day and I wanted to throw it out there. Not sure how often I'll update but there is a plan for this. I'm not expecting it to be a super long story. Probably.


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